Facebook users choose Nick Clegg as new Prime Minister

Web mellows to yellow

Facebook users have decided that Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, is the best bet to be the new Prime Minister, with a whopping 42 per cent of a vote conducted on the social-networking site.

A poll was conducted via Facebook's Democracy UK page, which brought in nearly 500,000 users' opinions, and saw 42% opt for Clegg compared to only 31% for David Cameron (Conservatives) and 27% for Gordon Brown (Labour).

Compared to a month ago, the Lib Dems currency has gone up considerably when they were only ranking with 19 per cent of the vote in a parallel poll.

Huge surge in engagement

Facebook's poll was definitely one which echoes what today's youth is thinking about politics – as three-fifths of those voting were under the age of 35.

Speaking about the poll, Richard Allan, Facebook's Director of Public Policy for Europe said: "We have seen a huge surge in engagement on Facebook with thousands of political groups and pages being set up, with some attracting hundreds of thousands of users – including Facebook's own Democracy UK page.

"Whatever the outcome of the election, the level of engagement we have witnessed both on Facebook and beyond is hugely positive for the health of our democracy."